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This Week in Media, from Apple TVs to Vevo

It has been an interesting week in the media world. While lawsuits around Dish Network’s Auto Hop and Aereo’s business model have progressed slower than we expected, there have been plenty of events and news reports that give us yet another clue into the future of media. As usual, you’ll find the most important of them in our weekly roundup.

Google and Facebook reportedly interested in buying into Vevo

According to an exclusive report from the New York Post, Facebook and Google are competing for an equity share and an advanced advertising partnership with music video platform Vevo. As we noted, such a deal could make sense for both companies. While Vevo has an agreement in place with YouTube, it reportedly expires at the end of the year.

While Facebook declined to comment on these rumors, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that Vevo has been negotiating with the social network. Besides the fact that its deal with Google is up for renewal, its integration with Facebook has proven to be a huge success in terms of engagement, with sharing going up 100% over a very short period of time.

Will film studios become publishers?

As BookExpo America is kicking off, Hollywood expert blog Deadline is noting an upcoming trend: film studios entering the e-publishing space. After all, it’s quite easy for them to start selling digital scripts. As a matter of fact, Warner Bros is already doing this with its ‘Inside the Script‘ initiative, a series of illustrated e-books around classics such as ‘North by Northwest’ and ‘Casablanca.’

Yet, this could go much beyond scripts – as Deadline points out, “studios have the cash, connections, and marketing muscle to do much more. They could cut out traditional publishers and sign deals with authors that blend book and movie rights. They also could commission writers to put out novelized versions of movies or TV series.”

Apple sold “a little less than 3 million Apple TVs” last year

One of the highlights of this week was Tim Cook’s keynote at All Things Digital conference, D10. From a media perspective, his comments on the Apple TV were particularly interesting. As we reported, Cook said that “Apple was now on track to double sales of the Apple TV this year and had sold some 2.7M so far, with only 2.8M sold all year last year.”

Apple’s new CEO declined to confirm whether or not Apple is planning to start producing TV sets, but he made it clear that the Apple TV in its current form is now much more than a hobby. As a matter of fact, it is an “area of intense interest” for the company, Cook said:

“We’re not a hobby kind of company as you know. Our tendency is to do very few things. And, if something creeps in and isn’t a big success, we get it out of the way and put our energies on something else. With Apple TV though, you see what we’ve done. We’ve stuck in this, it’s not the fifth leg of the stool. It’s not the same size as the iPhone or Mac or tablet business. But last year we sold a little less than three million Apple TVs.”

What’s coming

It remains to be seen what Apple will announce during WWDC, though it wouldn’t be surprising if some of the secret sessions it has scheduled were related to media in some way. For instance, several observers expect a new version of the Apple TV OS. In a blog post on Daring Fireball, John Gruber also suggests that it may even launch an App Store for the Apple TV, although he insists that it is “just a guess.”

WWDC aside, we will also be keeping an eye on E3, and we recommend you to do the same. Why? As the FT points out, “at the annual E3 video game show this week, console makers’ main focus will not be on the latest games, but rather other forms of entertainment like music and movies that they hope will extend the life and functionality of their now-ageing boxes.”

All for now. Stay tuned to TNW Media for the latest in digital content news.